31204
Seminar
Borderlands and Border-Making in Eastern Europe
Ruslana Bovhyria
Comments
This seminar examines the historical processes of border-making in Eastern Europe from the early modern period until the early 20th century. Focusing primarily on the interactions between the Habsburg, Russian, Ottoman, and Persian Empires, it investigates how imperial authorities conceptualized, demarcated, negotiated, and contested territorial boundaries - often through diplomacy, cartography, ecological intervention, or legal tools of property. The course also pays close attention to the local populations who
inhabited these zones of ambiguity and flux, exploring how they navigated shifting sovereignties and developed forms of agency, resistance or accommodation. The seminar engages with a rich body of theoretical literature on frontiers, drawing from political
geography, historical anthropology, and critical border studies. Through this lens, students will critically assess how imperial regimes used borders both as tools of governance and as mechanisms to shape identities.
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Suggested reading
Charles Maier, Once Within the Borders: Territories of Power, Wealth, and Belonging since 1500. Cambridge 2016.
Lauren Benton, A Search for Sovereignty: Law and Geography in European Empires, 1400-1900. Cambridge 2014.
Kate
Brown, A Biography of No Place: From Ethnic Borderlands to Soviet Heartland. Cambridge 2003.
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16 Class schedule
Regular appointments
Tue, 2025-10-14 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2025-10-21 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2025-10-28 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2025-11-04 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2025-11-11 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2025-11-18 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2025-11-25 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2025-12-02 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2025-12-09 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2025-12-16 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2026-01-06 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2026-01-13 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2026-01-20 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2026-01-27 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2026-02-03 10:00 - 12:00
Tue, 2026-02-10 10:00 - 12:00